BARGAINING WITH DEFENSIVE HOMICIDE: EXAMINING VICTORIA'S SECRETIVE PLEA BARGAINING SYSTEM POST-LAW REFORM

In November 2005, the Victorian government introduced a series of homicide law reforms, central to which was the implementation of a new offence of defensive homicide. The reforms followed from significant debate surrounding the use of the partial defence of provocation, particularly in relation to male-perpetrated intimate homicides. Since the new offence was implemented in 2005, a pattern of plea deals to defensive homicide has emerged, which, due to the private nature of plea bargaining in Victoria, has created difficulties in understanding how the offence is operating in practice. Informed by 63 interviews conducted with Victorian legal professionals, this article argues that greater transparency and scrutiny of plea bargaining is needed in Victoria in order to increase public confidence in the administration of justice, and to enable an informed understanding of why these cases are perceived and ultimately treated by the Crown as a less serious form of homicide.